Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavior Therapy on Depression and Quality of Life in Spouse Caregivers of Inpatients With Substance Use Disorders

Substance dependence in families can have a wide range of negative effects on the lives of those close to the dependent person, in addition to causing pain to the dependent person. The present study aims to investigate the effect of cognitive behavioural intervention on depression and quality of life (QoL) in wives who cared for husbands with substance use disorders.

The research was conducted using a quasi-experimental design with pre- and post-tests. Purposive sampling was used to select 60 spouse carers of male inpatients with substance use disorders, who were randomly assigned to the intervention (n=30) and control (n=30) groups. At baseline and post-intervention, all participants completed the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) and the World Health Organization Quality of Life-Bref (WHO QoL-BREF). The intervention group received eight sessions per week of individual cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for 45 to 60 minutes, while the control group did not. Data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) in SPSS software, version 26. In statistical tests, the significance level was 0.05. 

The results showed significant differences between the pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental group; therefore cognitive behavior intervention can significantly reduce depression and improve the QoL of substance dependent’s wife.

These results have crucial implications for clinical practice in terms of improving mental health and well-being in the context of male substance use disorder spouse caregivers.